1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle alarm sound outputting device and a program for generating an alarm sound to warn existence of an obstacle or the like to a passenger(s) in a vehicle room or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
An alarm sound outputting device disposed in a vehicle sometimes has such a situation that sound sources such as plural alarm sounds, guidance, etc. are simultaneously output in accordance with the state of the vehicle, the surrounding condition around the vehicle or the like. For example, when an obstacle located ahead of the vehicle is detected by a laser radar while a route is guided by a navigation device, a signal sound for warning detection of the obstacle is generated (see JP-A-2002-133596 (page 1, FIG. 5) (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).
Furthermore, when an obstacle around a vehicle is detected by a sonar arranged around the vehicle while an incomplete door close state is warned, a signal sound for informing detection of the obstacle is generated as in the case of the above patent document 1 (see JP-A-2003-220911 (page 1, FIG. 14 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2).
That is, in some cases, the conventional techniques described above have such a situation that sound sources such as plural alarm sounds, guidance, etc. are simultaneously output. In this case, perception performance of warning contents by passengers is lowered due to an acoustic masking phenomenon.
When the masking phenomenon is remarkable, information cannot be correctly supplied to a driver, and thus there is a probability that the driver's judgment is confused.